Zugzwang
by Watercolor Woman
Summary: They can't ignore it. It's a fact. She doesn't belong, but he's willing to do anything he can to keep her, even if it causes some problems along the way


_Author's Note: While none of the events in this chapter regarding Ashley, Kansas are true, you can read the story I based this chapter off on creepy pasta. Enjoy!_

* * *

"Rose, hold on!" The Doctor shouted. Rose nearly lost her grip when the void began to pull the pair closer to the vortex. She held onto the lever handle, until she felt the pulling stop, and her feet on the marble floor. The Doctor's fall was not as graceful, and he slammed right onto the ground. The vortex disappeared, along with all the daleks and cyberman. Rose went to help the Doctor up.

"Hello." She smiled.

"Hello." He hugged her tightly, happy to have her alive, in this universe and not in the void. The torchwood office was a mess and completely abandoned. Rose and the Doctor were the only two people in the building. They walked back to the tardis silently. Rose wanted to think about the decision she made, and just how much her life will change. She had no one to go back to, no home. Her mum and dad were in the parallel universe. Mickey wouldn't be around anymore to tag along on their adventures. But she had the Doctor, the one person she gave it all up for. For a long time, she had debated whether or not she would stay with the Doctor. She made her choice, and wasn't sure if she regret it or not, now that it's set in stone. The Doctor unlocked the tardis, but blocked the way and faced Rose.

"You alright?" The Doctor asked her. "You've been quiet the whole walk back here." Rose shrugged.

"I'm just getting used to not having my mum around anymore." The Doctor cast his eyes away.

"You're regretting staying with me, aren't you?"

"No!" She said quickly. "It's just kind of weird. I'll be fine, just give me some time." She grinned. The Doctor knew she wasn't sure, but he didn't want to argue with her. It would only make things worse for her, and that was the last thing he wanted. He stepped inside the tardis, and ran to the controls. Rose walked in and closed the door. She followed the Doctor, taking her time.

"Alright, where do you –" The Doctor was interrupted by a weird sound from the engines. The sound grew louder and louder. The tardis began to move wildly, and the pair fell to one side of the tardis. The Doctor reached for Rose, but couldn't grab her. The tardis shifted to the other side, and the Doctor ended up on top of Rose. Due to the way the way the tardis moved, they couldn't adjust. Rose, wide eyed, had never been so close to the Doctor, except for when they were in Rome, and the Doctor had kissed her. She didn't feel remorse about being this close, but neither did the Doctor. When the tardis stabilized, the Doctor rolled off Rose, and hit his head against the controls. The two of them looked at each other before laughing.

"I would have missed this so much." Rose said sincerely. The two got up, unsure of where they were. "Any idea when we are?" The Doctor shook his head.

"I didn't touch the controls. Something must be wrong with the tardis to have it go wonky like this." The Doctor began to play around with the settings, unable to get the tardis to work. Wherever they were, they were stuck there.

"We should take a look outside, maybe we can find something that can fix it." Rose suggested. The Doctor knew he should have at least gone to check the engines, but didn't want to have Rose go out on her own. He would be cautious of her, knowing how close he was to losing her once. They stepped out the tardis, and saw a small town. The tardis landed right next to the name of the town.

"Welcome to Ashley, Kansas. Population 679." Rose read aloud. The Doctor had heard about Ashley, Kansas many times during his travels. In 1952, the town mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen or heard of again. Many of the aliens he talked to weren't sure what happened, and why it happened. But whatever the case was, he was stuck here.

"We have to get out of here." The Doctor ran back inside and tried to get the tardis back up and running. She wasn't responding to any of the buttons he pressed. Rose didn't go back inside. She turned around, confused why he was didn't want to stay.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"This town is doomed, and if we don't get out of here in time, we could be sucked in with them. Why won't these controls work?" The Doctor slammed his fists against the controls, and the sound in the engine returned. Smoke came from the controls.

"Doctor!" Rose ran up to him. The Doctor was furious, ready to burst. He tried to calm himself, which took some time. The noise continued, but grew fainter and fainter. Eventually it was only a whisper. If someone were to walk inside at that moment, they would have thought they were going crazy. A sound so quiet, no one is supposed to hear it. When the Doctor finally calmed down, he looked at Rose.

"Sorry, I got a little angry. Maybe we should go inside and talk to some of the locals. Maybe this isn't the year I'm thinking we're in." The Doctor said. The two walked outside and into the town. Ashley was a very small town, with no police or school to call their own. Everyone here depended on the surrounding cities for all their needs. They entered a small shop. Rose looked around at the merchandise while the Doctor looked at the newspaper. He picked up the paper, not caring about the headline. The stand noted that it was a free paper, which the Doctor would remember. He looked at the date: August 8th, 1952. The tardis had dropped them off eight days before the city would disappear forever.

"Never seen you or your friend around before, where you from?" The man at the counter asked. The Doctor faced him. The Doctor was unsure if he wanted to fix anything, or take credit for possibly blowing up the town. He decided to fake an American accent. Rose was looking at some magazines when the man asked them. She has about to speak, but the Doctor grabbed her hand before she could.

"From Colorado, both of us. I'm John, she's Daisy." The Doctor's accent wasn't the best, and he regretted not putting time into perfecting it like he perfected his Scottish accent. Rose looked at him, and he winked. Rose turned back to the man.

"Yea, what he said." Her accent was much better than the Doctor's. The Doctor put the newspaper back onto the rack. The Doctor began to drag them outside when the man behind the counter protested.

"Aw now wait! It's not every day we get someone from Colorado here! Come and talk!" Rose let go of the Doctor's hand and walked to counter. The Doctor didn't want to affect this fixed point, but he had to stay with Rose. "What brings ya to Ashley?"

"Traveling." The Doctor said. "We got lost and ended up here."

"Our car broke down outside town." Rose added. "We just need a place to stay." The old man smiled. He had a toothless grin, but that never stopped him from smiling.

"Well if that's the case, you can stay with me. I'm Gabriel, by the way. I live upstairs. I'll show you two around as soon as the store closes. You can just stay upstairs until then. Door's to the left, you'll see some stairs. Just walk up, door should be unlocked." The Doctor and Rose went upstairs to the Gabriel's home. It wasn't exactly clean, but it was better than nothing. They at least at had a place to stay until the Doctor fixed the tardis. Gabriel had a small apartment above his store. The living room had a small couch, and the kitchen was a small corner in the same living room. Following the kitchen was a hallway, where there were two doors: Gabriel's room and the bathroom. Any storage was put into the corner of the living room in cardboard boxes. Rose settled down the couch, but the Doctor stood next to the door.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked, going back to her own accent.

"We're in a bad place in a really bad time, Rose. Today is the 8th of August, 1952. This is when things start to go downhill here. I don't want us to be caught in the middle of it." The Doctor admitted. "I have to get back to the tardis so I can check the engine."

"But Gabriel will just think that you're skipping out, and he seems nice. Maybe we can stay for a few days. Maybe we can stop whatever happens to this town, we can save Ashley." The Doctor was silent. He couldn't tell her the _real _reason he wanted to leave; He didn't have the guts to tell her. Instead, the Doctor nodded, and joined her on the couch. He glanced at the clock on the wall, the time was 2:34 in the afternoon. Despite this, Rose was already falling asleep. The two of them didn't have time to rest and recover from Canary Wharf, and so the two fell asleep on the couch. Rose used the Doctor's shoulder as a pillow, and the Doctor rested on Rose's head.

A few hours later, Gabriel closed up his shop and walked upstairs to get the pair that wandered into his store. He found them asleep on the couch, and woke the two of them up. It wasn't the best sleep, but it was enough for them to feel better after the battle. They followed Gabriel as he showed them around the town, pointing out where certain houses, who lived there. There wasn't much to see, but he tried to make the tour as lively as possible. At exactly 7:00pm, a hole appeared above Ashley. Rose was the first to spot it, pointing it out to the Doctor and Gabriel. All three of them were unsure what it was, or why it was there. Whatever it was scared Gabriel. He dragged the pair back to his store, and up to his apartment. He didn't want them near, whatever it is. In the kitchen, Gabriel had a phone hooked up, and he called the police. The Doctor and Rose didn't listen on his conversation, instead talking to each other.

"Do you know what that was?" Rose asked the Doctor.

"No, wish I did. It's weird, that thing. It doesn't looked like anything I've ever seen before. It kind of looked like a black hole, but it's just – _not_. It's not sucking anything in, which it should be, but it's not. So it's not a black hole, but it looks like one. Does that make any sense?" Rose was in awe. All she got from his ramble was that it may be a black hole, but it's not behaving like one.

"A little. Maybe you're right, we should go back to the tardis, try and fix whatever is wrong with it." Rose whispered. The two got up and headed for the door. Gabriel hang up the phone and saw his guests leaving.

"Where are you two going? The police said it's best to stay inside until they get some people over here." Gabriel said. The Doctor felt trapped; he knew it would be like this for a few days, until everything came crumbling down. Gabriel would force them to die. The Doctor was willing to stay for the night, but he wouldn't stay another night in this town. Not with Rose in tow.

"We'll leave tomorrow in the morning then, go fix the car." The Doctor nearly forgot that he was pretending it be an American. In all the places he's been to, his accent had never been a problem. But this was the first time he was staying in a small town in the middle of nowhere, where likely no one would suspect someone from outside the country, much less world, to be.

"You guys can sleep on the couch. I probably shoulda told you when you first came here that it opens up to a bed." Gabriel opened up the couch, and turned it into a bed. He went into the bedroom and grabbed a few blankets, setting them on the bed. "It ain't the coziest thing, but it's better than nothing. I'll be in my room, just holler if anything happens." Gabriel retreated to his room, and would not be disturbed for the rest of the night. Rose began to fix up the blankets, trying to make the bed comfortable. It worked to some extent, but they would still be close together. They would be right next to each other on the bed, not that Rose minded. The two got into bed and faced each other, neither of them completely tired.

"Penny for your thoughts?" The Doctor asked. He wanted to get his mind off of Ashley for just one second, just one second.

"You're scaring me." She admitted. It wasn't what Rose had planned to say, but it was too late to take it back. "You keep talking like Ashley is the setting to a horror film. I don't want to be so scared right after Canary Wharf." Rose was on the verge of crying. It took her everything she had to keep herself from bursting right there and then.

"It may as well be. But I'll get us out of here before it all starts, don't worry. First thing tomorrow morning, we'll go out to the tardis and figure out what's wrong with it."

"What about all the people here? What's going to happen to them?" Rose worried. The Doctor didn't answer, because he didn't know himself. All he knew were dates and numbers. When it starts, when it ends, how many people die. It was frightening to not know the details himself, but no one was around to tell the story. No one had ever witnessed the disaster first hand, but the event itself caused the universe to talk for several hundred years.

Later that night, the Doctor was still wide awake. He couldn't go back to sleep. In front of him he saw the back of Rose's head, and saw her body shake. Sitting up, he turned her over. She was asleep, but she cried like she was awake. The Doctor lied back down and held her. He wasn't sure what caused her tears, but whatever it was, he knew it was bad. He kissed the top of her head and held her. Soon the crying ceased, and her body stopped shaking. The next morning, Gabriel woke up to find the two hugging, fast asleep. He made breakfast for his guests, and left it on the counter. Gabriel walked downstairs to open his shop.

Rose was the first to wake up. She wiggled out of the Doctor's embrace, and went to the kitchen. She saw two plates of food, along with a note: _I didn't want to wake ya. Made you two some breakfast. Also if ya had sex on my couch, I won't be mad if ya come clean. Just make sure to put the blankets on top of the boxes so I can wash em. –Gabriel. _Rose threw out the note before the Doctor could wake up and read it, knowing his reaction would embarrass her. In reality, she wasn't sure if they had sex or not, and waking up in his arms didn't make things clearer. The Doctor woke up a few minutes later.

"Morning, sleepyhead." Rose called to the Doctor. "Gabriel made us some breakfast, come and get it." The Doctor and Rose sat down at the table and began to eat. The first half of their meal was silent, but then the Doctor got curious.

"Do you remember what you dreamed last night?" He bluntly asked. Rose dropped her fork, and began to shake again. It wasn't as bad as the night before, but was still obvious. "If you're not comfortable talking about it, that's fine. It's just that you were crying last night. I was worried."

"No, it's alright. I dreamt that I couldn't hold on during Canary Wharf, and got nearly sucked into the vortex. But my dad, he saved me, and took me into the parallel universe. And then there was this awful white wall… Anyway, I had to stay there, and I got a job at the shop you blew up when we first met. Next thing I know I'm a beach, and you're there, but you're not _there._ You were in the other universe, saying how you burned up a sun just to say goodbye. And… And…" Rose began to shake again.

The Doctor got up and hugged her. He heard her cry into his chest, unable to put her words together. Everything sounded slurred. The whole time, the Doctor just held her, not saying a word. He had a feeling that the dream was significant, that it shouldn't be ignored. Perhaps it had something to do with them being in Ashley. When Rose calmed down, the two walked downstairs and thanked Gabriel for his hospitality. They walked back to the entrance of the town, but the only thing there was the sign, telling them to return soon to Ashley. There was no evidence of the tardis being there.

"No, no, no, no. This isn't right, this is where we left the tardis. Isn't it? Right there, next to the sign." The Doctor said quickly.

"We're stuck here." Rose whispered. "Doctor what happens next? What time is next significant event?"

"Let's see the last significant event was at 7:13pm, which was around the time when Gabriel called the police station. The next one should be today at 8:17pm. We have about a week before Ashley disappears forever."

"Do you know how?"

"No, because no one survives whatever is about to happen." The Doctor and Rose walk back to Ashley, and see the town in panic mode. Everyone is scurrying their children inside, getting them off the already empty streets.

"You two, come in with me! We have to stay inside!" She shouts, dragging Rose and the Doctor inside. They're dragged into a real house, with two floors and rooms separated by walls. The women ran upstairs, not to be seen for a while. There's a child sitting on the floor, playing with blocks. He appeared too young to understand anything that was going on in the town.

"Sorry my wife dragged you two inside, we have to stay out of trouble. That thing is only getting bigger, and we're not losing anyone because of it." The man said, coming from the kitchen. "Sorry, I'm Vincent, the women you say go upstairs was my wife Elaine. She's going insane about this, can't blame her." He laughed.

"I'm Daisy, this is John." Rose introduced. She hated going back to an American accent.

"Your husband?" Vincent asked.

"Friends." Rose corrected. "Just friends." She smiled awkwardly. Vincent didn't seem convinced, but that was the least of their concerns.

"Alright then, just sit around, and hope we all get through this rough spot. Sorry again." He grabbed the baby and started walking toward the stairs. When he was upstairs and out of sight, Rose settled onto the couch. The Doctor went over to the window, and looked outside.

"I hadn't even noticed that the hole is getting bigger. There's has be an explanation behind this." Rose twiddled her thumbs as the Doctor went on, stating random theories that wouldn't add up. Rose thought seriously about it.

"What if the tardis has something to do with it? Doctor?" The Doctor looked away from the window, and put himself into Rose's theory. The tardis has disappeared, and there is a random black hole in the sky. It could work, but it at the same time she could be completely off.

"Maybe, but I need to wait to figure things out. We have to wait until 8:17 to put the piece together."

"Well what time is it now?" Rose asked. The clock on the wall stated 2:34pm, the exact same time that the Doctor saw when at Gabriel's. He decided to set think it was a coincidence, and that time was moving quicker than they imagined.

"We have around 6 hours to wait." For four of those hours, nothing happened. Elaine came downstairs and began to talk to Rose, while the Doctor found a book to read. At 6:30, there was a knock on the door. Elaine opened the door. There was as family with two children, a boy and a girl. The entire family looked ready to go on a journey, and the fear of the hole in the sky didn't make things any better.

"Mr. and Mrs. Milton! Oh, Jeffery, Brooke! What are you doing here? You should be inside your home!" Elaine gasped.

"We're leaving. We just came to say goodbye, and that we'll call you when we're in the next town over. We'll get help for everyone here." Mr. Milton said. His face was blank, like he had planned exactly what he was going to say.

"Please be careful, we don't know what's out there." Elaine hugged the four members of the family, and they swiftly left the premises. Their car was loaded, and bags were tied to the roof of the car to save space. They left at 90 miles per hour, wanting to leave Ashley as fast as possible. The Doctor had a feeling the next event involved the family that had just left. They didn't seem like they were going to have a happy ending. Rose could see the worry on Elaine's face, hours after they left. When their baby began to cry, Rose volunteered to check on him. Not wanting to be alone, the Doctor volunteered to help Rose. The baby had woken up from his nap, and just needed someone to nurture and care for him. Rose picked the baby up from his crib and rocked him back and forth. The Doctor leaned against the door frame, admiring the way Rose took care of the child.

"You're good at that." He said softly in his own accent.

"When I was still in school I worked as a sitter, watched over kids like him." She looked at the child. "He's so innocent, so calm." The baby went back to sleep, and Rose set him back into the crib. The Doctor walked carefully up to Rose, not wanting to wake the baby.

"He's lovely, he's going to grow up to be a handsome lad." The Doctor grinned. He then remembered where they were, and his smile fell, but not without Rose noticing.

"We have to save them, save him." Rose murmured. _I'm trying to save you, _The Doctor thought. He had another reason to save this town from the impending disaster. Abruptly, a cry came from downstairs. It didn't wake the baby, but Rose and the Doctor ran downstairs to check what happened. Vincent was holding onto his wife, while he hung up the phone.

"What's going on?" Rose asked.

"Oh, Daisy, John. They never got to Hayes. There's only one way out of here, and that's through Hayes. The police says that the Miltons never made it!" Elaine panicked. Rose was astonished. She knew that something was terribly wrong. It wasn't just some story the Doctor had come up with. They were actually trapped here. The Doctor looked at the clock, 8:17. He was right. The next event would occur at 7:38, tomorrow morning.

"I'm sorry, I'm sure they're alright." Rose tried to make Elaine feel better, but Elaine only continued to cry. Out of fear, Elaine decided to search for them. Vincent didn't want to leave her alone, and offered to go with her. She left her baby under the care of Rose and the Doctor, who was hesitant to watch over the child. In his whole life, the Doctor had never really watched a child. Even his own children on Gallifrey were watched by the nurses, and he never met them. The closest thing was when Susan was with him, which was many years ago.

"Please be careful." Rose called to them as they drove onto the road. Elaine waved, and drove off the property. Rose had a feeling that the woman would not be returning. They were stuck in an empty house with no way out, a baby, and each other.

The Doctor woke up the next morning on the couch. He heard Rose talk to the baby in the kitchen, and got up to investigate. She was trying to calm the child, who had noticed that his mum and dad had disappeared. The child continually cried until the Doctor came up to him and put his finger to his lips. He hushed the child, who calmed down instantly. He asked Rose for the child, who passed him immediately. The baby cooed, which the Doctor translated.

"He knows something isn't right. The next thing is going to happen at 7:38am. Although since we have no one around, we may miss it." The Doctor muttered. He cleared his voice. "What time is it?" Rose walked to the living room to check the time.

"Doctor, the time is 7:30. It's already morning." She stuttered. The Doctor walked into the living room and checked the clock himself. Outside it was still dark. The pair walked outside, and saw the town covered in darkness. The streetlights were still on, but flickered lightly. Up above there were no stars. The night had eaten them up.

"Okay we're in trouble now. I have to get to the bottom of this. The day was spent trying to figure out what was going on. He tried to rule out aliens, the same way he did when he ran into the slitheen. Although, he came to the conclusion that it couldn't have been aliens. For a moment he suspected weeping angels, who could take advantage of the darkness. Although, the angels did not have the ability to prevent the sun from rising. They took turns watching the child, feeding him. Through this time they still had not figure out his name. The next morning, while it was the Doctor's turn to watch, Rose searched for his paperwork. She found it under his crib in a small box. She learned his name was Tony.

"Okay so his name is Tony, and he's a year and a half old." Rose said as she walked down the steps. She brought down his paperwork, knowing that if they got out, they would have to take him to a hospital. They simply could not take him into their care.

"What? You told me your name was Beast Boy!" The Doctor laughed. The baby cooed in response. "No, I'm going to start calling you by your real name, Mr. Tony." Rose smiled. Even if one second, her life seemed back to normal. She wasn't stuck in a doomed town. Her mother wasn't in a parallel universe. She was okay. Until Phoebe began to bang on their door.

"Elaine! Let me in please! It's Phoebe! I'm so frightened! You've gotta let me in!" The woman banged and banged on the door until Rose let her in. Phoebe was obviously frazzled. Her hair was all over the place, her make-up running down her face.

"Sorry, Elaine isn't home. I'm Ro-Daisy. Can I help you?" Rose said calmly. Phoebe continued to breathe heavily. When she relaxes, she's able to talk.

"It's my daughter, Erica. She's gone crazy! Can you come help me?" Rose was hesitant to help Phoebe, especially with Tony with them. She stayed while the Doctor left to investigate Phoebe's daughter. She didn't live too far from them. At the door, there was a girl, no older than twelve, rasping at the window. When the girl spotted her mother, she ran to the door and tried to unlock it. Erica unlocked the door and began to run. The Doctor caught her before she could do anything hasty.

"Mama please, let me join them! I want to follow Papa, please! I want to join them." Erica cried. Erica was much stronger than she looked, and managed to pull away from the Doctor. She ran off to the end of town, faster than humanly possible. Phoebe was devastated. She ran inside to call the police while the Doctor looked around. He saw that other children ran out of the houses and went in the same direction as Erica. Parents fled out of their houses and ran to search for their children. Many parents attempted to follow their children, a few stayed behind and went back into their houses. All over the town, people called into the police, who just told them to stay inside and avoid looking for their children. Some of the parents disobeyed the orders. Phoebe was among these parents. The Doctor tried to stop her, but she wanted her daughter back.

The Doctor returned back to the house shamefully. Rose already knew what was happening, because she watched everything from inside the house. Lucky for her, Tony didn't run away. He could barely walk, much to her relief. She put him down when the Doctor came inside, and hugged him. The Doctor's face was still, without emotion. He appeared tired. There wasn't any conversation that day. The Doctor was out of options and out of ideas. He only had 5 days left in Ashley, and perhaps, 4 days left to live. He wasn't one to give up, but he couldn't act without any resources. All that was left was to wait and see, that maybe a miracle would give them the opportunity to leave.

On the morning of August 12th, Rose woke up to find Tony missing. He wasn't in his crib or anywhere in house. She search frantically until she looked out the window and saw other parents outside. After speaking to them, she learned that all the children had disappeared. The police just told them the same thing: stay inside, don't go after the children, and keep out of trouble. It killed Rose to know that Tony was out there, that he waddled out on his own. The Doctor and Rose sat in the living room and read all the books in that house. They took turns sleeping, but never spoke to each other. They stayed like that until the next day, late in the evening. A ruckus came from outside. The two walked outside and saw a bright light in the horizon. It danced slowly, looking like fire. They sat outside and watched as the fire gradually moved up into the sky. The light was like a firework, expanding into the dark sky. Rose went back inside to get food for the two. When she returned, the Doctor had his face in his hands.

"You alright?" She asked. He moved his hands from his face.

"Yeah, just tired." He responded. That was it for the day. There wasn't room for conversation, not here. The light became big and bright enough to appear as daytime. Although, instead of a kind blue sky, there was a fierce red layer over them. The source had moved from one end of the sky to the other in the course of two days, finally disappearing on August 14th, early in the morning. More people disappeared during this time, all going after the mysterious light in the sky.

They spent their day asking around, helping as many people as possible. Even if they were stuck here, they had to try their best to make things as comfortable as possible. It was the only way Rose could keep her sanity after Tony leaving randomly. The Doctor tried to live up to his name by helping as many people as possible. People weren't so insistent on staying inside their homes. They ended up sleeping in a random stranger's home. They hadn't caught her name, but they learned that she had a son who died several years ago in a hit-and-run incident.

"Who's he?" Rose had asked earlier that day. She had noticed a picture of a young boy, around five years old.

"That's my son. He died a few years ago, but I keep the picture around, even if it makes me sad." The woman told her.

When they woke up, many of the people were depressed. All the franticness had passed, and they were accepting their fate.

Later that day, the pair decided to see what was beyond the town lines, if there was anything. They reached the end where the tardis had originally left them. The Doctor saw nothing but darkness up ahead, not even the dusty road could be seen. Rose was tempted to move forward, but knew that moving anymore up ahead was dangerous. She felt the tug of the emptiness up ahead. The Doctor was well felt it, but it wasn't as strong as Rose. A few minutes later, the climax began. From far away, Rose swore that she saw her mother. She knew it was an illusion, but wanted to move closer. The Doctor noticed Rose sticking her arm and started walking outside the lines. He pulled her back.

"Rose no!" The Doctor shouted. "It's an illusion, it's not her!" The Doctor pulled them into town, while Rose kept on looking back. More and more people began to enter Ashley at an alarming rate. She knew then that they weren't there for a reunion. They were here to kill them.

"Doctor, this is it, isn't it? It's August 15th. This is the last day." Rose whispered. "Doctor I don't want to die!" The Doctor held her tightly, knowing that she needed the hug. He looked over her shoulder to see the people come closer and closer. Out in the distance, he swore he could see all the souls he had lost on his trips. He kept telling himself it couldn't be real, but he was on the edge.

"We're not dying today." The Doctor hissed. They ran back into the center of town and saw the houses being overfilled with different people wandering into different houses. One of them was a young boy, the boy in the picture from before. The dead were coming back to life.

"He's dead!" Rose screeched over the screams from the town. "How can he be back?"

"I don't know, but I saw some people who had died traveling with me earlier." Those words would only hurt Rose. She had seen her mother. The Doctor realized what he said. "Your mother is dead in this universe, she's not actually dead, remember that for me, Rose."

It still hurt Rose to know that her mother was dead in this universe. She would never see her again. Rose began to cry and ran to the other edge of town, back to the illusion of her mother. The Doctor ran after her, and was forced to tackle her down. She fought back, but despite his scrawny appearance, the Doctor pinned her down.

"Rose she's not real! If you go out there you'll get killed." The Doctor tried to stay calm and relaxed. He was in position to fight her back.

"Mum I'm sorry! Mum!" Rose continued to shout. The Doctor pulled her up into a hug. They sat down in the middle of town, in each other arms, as the world around them collapsed. The people around began to notice Rose and the Doctor. They all reached for them. The Doctor's past companions and Jackie Tyler.

Then, the miracle happened.

The tardis began to materialize around Rose and the Doctor. Rose noticed first and smiled happily at the familiar sight of the tardis. While it wasn't the exact same design, it was definitely the same tardis. The Doctor reacted and transported them out of Ashley. He took them straight to Cardiff, to Rose Tyler's old home. He knew it would be the best place for her, especially after Ashley. The two crawled out of the tardis and laughed happily, knowing that they survived the destruction.

"We're alive!" Rose was so happy she cried tears of joy into the Doctor's coat. The happiness was short lived when the Doctor realized what caused the destruction in the first place.

"But I think I know why Ashley fell." The Doctor muttered. Rose looked up at him as he continued. "When we landed, things started getting weird. And when the tardis disappeared, you were right to figure that it was involved. If the tardis looks different it's basically regenerated itself, meaning that instead of regenerating internally as it usually does, it regenerated externally, and Ashley was in the path of destruction."

"But that doesn't explain why we saw those people, those – dead people." Rose admitted.

"I think it was a side effect. The tardis was coming back to life, meaning it was bringing back life to Ashley. It brought back people who were important to the citizens, and us." The Doctor paused. "I'm behind the unsolved mystery."

"Doctor, it's not your fault." He told Rose to get her belongings from inside the house and that he needed to be alone. While it wasn't exactly anyone's fault, it was Rose's and his own. He remembered Rose's dream, about being stuck in the parallel universe. Something wasn't right, and he knew it. Rose was supposed to end up on the other side, not with him on this side. It must have been a fixed point in time that they changed, and the tardis didn't like the change. The tardis took them to a random place, and they had to suffer the consequences. On the Brightside, the tardis would be able to work properly while accepting Rose.

When the Doctor pondered outside, Rose was inside her old home collecting as many things as possible. She took photographs and memories that couldn't be replaced. It was tragic to see her gather all her things and see her home, knowing it would be the last time. She left the furniture and big things there for the landlord to sort out. She knew it would be best to tell him, but there was no point; she wouldn't be returning. Rose carried two bags with her back to the tardis.

"Got all your things?" The Doctor asked, leaning against the doors of the tardis. Rose nodded. "Fantastic! After you." He opened the door. Rose walked inside, looking back briefly at her old complex. The Doctor looked back as well, only slightly missing Jackie's protests and over-cooked meals. He took them into space, so Rose could have time to settle her things into the tardis. When she returned, the Doctor gleamed.

"Alright, where to, Rose Tyler?" The Doctor began to list random places and names of famous people, but she was distracted by an unusual sight in the tardis. She physically turned the Doctor around who was a woman in a bridal dress, complete with the veil.

"What?" The Doctor asked. The woman turns around.

"Oh!" The woman said angrily.

"What?" Rose repeated.

"Who are you? Where am, eh?" The woman approached the pair.

"Doctor what's going on? How did she get here?" Rose asked quickly.

"What the hell is this place?" The woman asked frantically. She was not happy about not getting answer.

"What?" The Doctor said. It was impossible for the woman to be here. But of course, that was their life, Rose and the Doctor's. One adventure and mystery after the other.


End file.
